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Challenge #2
In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Because he's been disappeared from Amazon's Rings of Power, I'll do my favourite elf, Celeborn.
Not in any order
1. Look at him
2. The hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver, long and bright.
3. Prince of Doriath, one of the very few named characters to have known Middle-earth before the sun and moon, and yet to potentially still be here on earth with us. He would have known Elu Thingol as a beloved relative, to have seen the invention of writing by Daeron, would have belonged to an ancient oral culture that evolved in complete separation from the cultures in Valinor
4. Or was he actually a Nandor elf who had lived in Lothlorien since the world was made? Wouldn't that make for fascinating reading, considering how much racism the Valinorian elves have for even the Sindar. That would make him a really controversial choice of husband for one of the proud Noldor's princesses!
5. Or was he a Teleri prince who returned to Middle-earth with Galadriel with the Valar's blessing? That's a whole new raft of stories.
6. Hot tempered (look at the way he blows up at Gimli) and yet known as 'The Wise.' How does that work? What does wisdom look like when it's coupled with a temperament that's prone to offend people? Given that he's wise, does anyone actually listen to him? Can we find examples of places in canon where Celeborn's wisdom makes a difference? (In fact we can, for example when he stays behind in order to be the one who takes charge of the evacuation of Eregion, meaning that though the kingdom is destroyed by Sauron, a lot of the people get away.
I love the fact that he is ancient and wise, and yet still fiercely engaged with the world. I love the fact that he comes from a culture that is routinely treated as second rate by the Noldor, and yet one which has its own values and heroes. I love the fact that his marriage to Galadriel is in essence a mixed marriage with all the tensions that causes, and that he has to navigate first, second and third age in that awkward middle place. That's worth writing about!
And to be a little more coherent, here are two pieces of meta I prepared earlier:
Prince Valium? (A book-based character study of Celeborn).
That tall fellow next to Galadriel: A short essay about Celeborn
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Date: 2023-01-03 09:54 pm (UTC)From:I AM LOOKING! That's such beautiful art of him :'D
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Date: 2023-01-03 10:01 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 10:08 pm (UTC)From:..."Not in any order." I respectfully disagree. That IS a valid first place argument.
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Date: 2023-01-03 10:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 10:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 11:11 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 04:55 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 10:27 am (UTC)From:I watched about an hour of the series and found myself too bored and irritated to carry on, but ymmv. It certainly is pretty, though :)
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Date: 2023-01-17 03:31 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-17 04:19 pm (UTC)From:I have started watching it again and have managed to get a bit further this time, with Galadriel currently in Numenor. I'm going to be really unhappy if they've actually killed off Celeborn, so I'm going to hope that his unexpected return is going to happen, soap-opera like, in the next season just as she walks down the aisle with Halbrand/Sauron ;)
If not, it won't be the first time my favourite character has been fridged for the motivation of a protagonist!
Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-04 07:54 am (UTC)From:They've cleaned up so many of other people's messes. 0_o I bet what Celeborn was really thinking was more like, "Oh fuck me sideways, not AGAIN! This fucking dwarf. I'll just ... go get a mop. AGAIN."
Wisdom is not saying that out loud.
My favorite lines from the trailers are: "You have not seen what I have seen." (Story of my lives.) "Have you heard of him, boy? Have you heard of Sauron?" (That really needs to get pasted on a cartoon of religious doorknockers.) I'm sorry to hear that they left out Celeborn though.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-04 10:38 am (UTC)From:LOL! Yes exactly. And (with Gandalf apparently dead,) this time it sure seems like the one who's going to have to fight the Balrog in the upcoming war is Celeborn. So this is very definitely an 'oh fuck' moment for him.
It is a shame that those who clear up the messes don't seem to get as much fame or glory as those who make them. That's definitely the story of C&G's lives.
I did watch a good chunk of the first episode of Rings of Power, and while I was irritated by all the things I thought it got wrong (perils of being too engaged with the source material) the real damning thing for me was that I also thought it was kind of boring.
I gave it another go recently but didn't last as long as the first time. I might come back if Celeborn ever does turn up, but it's too much like fanfiction for me to bother with it if my favourite character isn't in it.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-04 10:51 am (UTC)From:Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-04 10:57 am (UTC)From:Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-04 11:15 am (UTC)From:Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-01-17 03:32 pm (UTC)From:They really had!
I bet what Celeborn was really thinking was more like, "Oh fuck me sideways, not AGAIN! This fucking dwarf. I'll just ... go get a mop. AGAIN."
*dies of mirth*
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Date: 2023-01-05 12:40 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-05 10:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-17 03:33 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-17 03:29 pm (UTC)From:This!!! I did enjoy RoP as a very derivative transormative work on the Tolkien Legendarium, and found enough to enjoy it despite everything that bugs me - but just effing off Celeborn made me lose most of my interest. ;op
That being said, I love Celeborn so much, which is your fault really ^^. I confess I never paid him much notice before the movies came out - but although I'd re-read the Hobbit and LotR a few times before the movies came out, I hadn't been really fannish about anything beyond Elrond as well as Middle-earth proper (fannish as in spinning my own stories about whatever). There also weren't a lot of the other sources translated into German and available to me for the longest time. Csokas!Celeborn really got my attention, though, no matter that I never know if I agree with that casting or not, ;op and when I later discovered Tolkien fanfic, your Oak and Willow was one of the first stories about him I read, and made me fall in love with the character, even more so after your essays and further reading deriving from there. I haven't written him often myself yet, but intend to do so much more, as he's so interesting indeed. Only once as main character, too, sadly, but it's been a fascinating challenge to write him as partner of a genderqueer Galadriel - most of my published fic so far is exchange or challenge entries, and I really enjoyed this one also for his role in it.
So absolute yay for promoting him, he's more than earned it! I'd love to read about the other possibilities of his provenience, too, they're all equally fascinating. Do you happen to have any recs with him, no matter who he is there and what about?
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Date: 2023-01-17 08:49 pm (UTC)From:I tried a third time to watch RoP while thinking of is as not-Tolkien but some other kind of high fantasy that was nevertheless just derivative of Tolkien. That made things easier because I wasn't always going 'why is he here? Why are they treating her like this? Why is he now the dwarven expert? Has everyone forgotten who his parents were? etc etc etc.
I wasn't really fannish pre the films either, even though the books had been really important to me since I was about 8. But then it wasn't until the films came out that I discovered the fandom, and I ended up being a Celeborn defender entirely because he was being dissed by a lot of people. I'm very contrarian with my fan behaviour in general, I think - I tend to flock to characters that hardly anyone likes.
Oh how cool that you enjoyed Oak and Willow so much :) Thank you! I do think Celeborn's social background (being from Doriath rather than Valinor) makes for an interesting different perspective from which to examine the history of M-e. I'm also interested in what Wisdom looks like in a character, because that's not a trait that generally gets depicted much, and sometimes I think it's really hard to recognise.
Genderqueer Galadriel sounds very believable, given her mother name. I am looking forward to reading that!
Sadly my website which I used to run which was full of my favourite stories had to be taken down when we didn't have the money to pay for the hosting, and I can't find where I put the files. However, I can definitely remember loving Bejai's stuff and she's still up on FF.net. That's a good place to start :)